On November 24, 2016, the court sent a letter to the parties, advising that Justice D.B. Nixon is no longer available for the case management meeting scheduled for December 15, 2016. The letter offered his next availability on February 21, 2017. The news came just one day before the plaintiff's brief for the scheduled applications for recusal of the judge, amendments and striking was to be filed.
The ongoing delays have unreasonably prolonged the plaintiff's wait for justice in these serious matters concerning the defendant lawyers' malicious harassment, defamation, fraud and misrepresentations to the courts in the underlying medical malpractice matter.
The plaintiff is entitled to a timely and fair hearing of her matters. The delays also threaten her access to justice.
With the hearing being rescheduled to February 21, 2017, the plaintiff's brief will be posted on this blog in early February 2017.
In related matters, the plaintiff continues to deal with the privacy breach matter and law society complaints, all still in progress.
The privacy breach matter, concerning Taryn Burnett (who ironically also practices privacy law) and Megan McMahon unlawfully obtaining the plaintiff's credit report, is before the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OIPC), which has its own delays.
On August 4, 2016, the plaintiff/complainant filed a formal response with evidence with the OIPC to oppose Gowlings' OIPC application which sought to disregard the plaintiff/complainant's PIPA request to access her personal information related to the credit and financial information wrongfully in Gowlings' possession.
Once the plaintiff/complainant obtains access to her personal information and has full details of the extent of the lawyers' and Gowlings' misuse of her credit and financial information, she will proceed to the next stage with the prescribed OIPC privacy breach complaint process for resolution to the following issues, as stated in her OIPC August 4 submission:
1. The privacy breach concerning Megan McMahon and Taryn Burnett’s unlawful
obtaining of [the complainant's] credit report and financial information and misuse of it.
2. Gowlings' failure to file the required privacy breach notification report upon learning
of Ms. McMahon's and Ms. Burnett's unlawful obtaining and usage of [the complainant's] credit report.
3. Suggestion for recommendations to be made for Gowlings to implement and enforce
privacy standards that will protect opposing parties from unauthorized access to credit
reports by its lawyers.
